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Taiwan aiming to recruit more foreign professional talent

Taiwan wants to attract 100,000 foreign professionals by 2030

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Taipei 101. (Flickr, Tsaiian photo)

Taipei 101. (Flickr, Tsaiian photo)

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — As Taiwan looks to transition toward living with COVID, it is also preparing to restart its push to attract foreign talent to the country.

Five Taiwanese tech companies, including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., recently announced 14,500 job openings in the chip and hardware manufacturing sectors. Meanwhile, Google and Microsoft, who have set up data centers in the country along with other business units, have over 1,000 job listings on LinkedIn.

The National Development Council (NDC) in an August survey last year found there was an overall shortage of 248,000 workers in Taiwan, including 47,000 at the executive level. The NDC recently proposed a recruitment initiative to attract 100,000 foreign professionals to the country by 2030.

The NDC is also working to update work and residency regulations, starting with adjustments to the 2018 Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals, which includes the resident-work visa offering referred to as the Taiwan Employment Gold Card program.

The Gold Card is a flexible work permit meant for high-end professionals and was started in 2018. It is a 4-in-1 card, which includes a resident visa, work permit, Alien Resident Certificate, and re-entry permit, according to the Taiwan Employment Gold Card Office.

Requirements for the program have been relaxed, while a ninth field of national defense has been included along with economy, culture and arts, finance, science and technology, law, architecture, sports, and education. The Employment Gold Card program allows holders a flexible and open visa for up to three years, in addition to fast-tracking permanent residency, with recent adjustments reducing the requirement from five years to three years, the office said.

Those interested in the program can apply online. For more information, visit the Taiwan Employment Gold Card Office here.